Update 2: Dr Farsalinos kindly agreed to an interview with the Ashtray Blog, which was carried out on our behalf by researcher Paul Bergen. Click here to read!

Electronic cigarettes cause no risk to the heart according to a new study presented at a European Society of Cardioligy conference.

The study, conducted by Dr Konstantinos Farsalinos, compared the effect of using electronic cigarette on the heart to that of cigarettes.

The study found that e-cigarettes:

had no acute effects on cardiac function

only had a very slight effect on blood pressure and heart rate

that although nicotine was present in e-liquid, it is absorbed at a slower rate than in cigarettes

Speaking at the conference, Dr Konstantinos Farsalinos also pointed out that a vaper (e-cigarette user) would have to use an e-cigarette for 4-12 months to get the same amount of nitrosamines found in just one cigarette.

It [the e-cigarette] is the only available product that deals with both the chemical (nicotine delivery) and psychological (inhaling and exhaling ‘smoke’, holding it, etc) addiction to smoking, laboratory analyses indicate that it is significantly less toxic and our study has shown no significant defects in cardiac function after acute use.

Main blogger at the Ashtray Blog, co-author of a University of Alberta study of "Electronic cigarettes as potential harm reduction products", co-author of the book: "Electronic Cigarettes: What the Experts Say." Works at ecigarettedirect.co.uk.

This is a breakthrough for e-cigarettes. I work for the NHS in England, where many smoking cessation advisers have already objected to vaping, on the rgounds that is has not been clinically tested. So they assume it must be potentially dangerous – not a very ‘evidence based’ response. More objective research like this study could help to change their (and public) opinion. But I could have wished the scientist had not been named ‘Dr Farsalinos’ – it kinda lacks credibility somehow!